ECW Hostile City Showdown  

 

June 24, 1994 

 

We’re in Philly at the ECW Arena. Host is one Joseph Styles. Two major selling points for this show; 1. Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr are teaming up to battle Public Enemy and 2. Cactus Jack vs. Sabu is your main event. This tape is more clipped than the last one so we have 71 minutes of action. I can deal with that*.

 

*Wait until I find out what’s been clipped out gentle reader. My word.  

 

Hack Myers vs. Tommy Dreamer 

The Shah started working ECW earlier in the year and has the same distinct look you remember but is working heel. The aim is to try and get Dreamer over as a babyface. He gets over here by stomping on a New York Rangers jersey, but he’s still booed. The “Dreamer sucks” chant is loud. He does too. He looks sluggish by his low standards here and seems to have forgotten how to sell. Dreamer wins with a Superfly Splash and that’s not well received. A backwards step for Dreamer after progression last time. ¾* 

 

Don E Allen vs. Chad Austin 

The crowd cotton on quickly and chant “911”. He chokeslams Pee Wee Moore, again, and takes out both jobbers for the amusement of the ECW faithful. A wrinkle though as Tod Gordon runs in and shoves Paul E over but 911 chokeslams him too!  

Rapturous applause for 911. Paul realised before Vince McMahon that the crowd wanted to see authority figures get beaten up. Tommy Dreamer runs in for the save and he eats a chokeslam too. 911 was never really a wrestler but he was a plot device.  

 

Dog Collar Match 

The Pitbull vs. The Tazmaniac 

These two wrestled last time out but Pitbull decked Taz with a chain so they’ve stepped up stips to a dog collar. Gary Wolfe’s gear always screamed “S+M convention” to me. Meanwhile Taz is brave to walk around barefoot in any part of Philadelphia. I don’t think I’ve seen a good dog collar match*. You can win here by collecting buckles or by pin or whatever. The match isn’t dreadful, but the dog collar adds very little. The finish is dismal though, with Wolfe collecting corners and Taz picking them up right behind him but that does NOTHING because Taz hits a suplex for the win anyway. Haha. What a terrible finish. Why bother having Taz collect buckles if he was pinning Gary anyway? *½ 

 

*Apparently CM Punk has been having them in AEW but I’ve not been watching. See also; Raven & Stevie Richards vs. The Pitbulls in ECW in 1995.

 

Post-Match: Pitbull #2 (Anthony Durante) runs in to kick Taz’s ass and give ECW another top tag team. As Rex & Spike, the Pitbulls had worked the Indies extensively for about four years prior to this including a stint in New Japan as the “Mad Bull Busters”. They hadn’t tagged in ECW since 1992 and Durante spent a year in Europe with CWA. I can only assume he got injured as there’s a three-month hole in his cagematch profile.  

 

The Bruise Brothers vs. Shane Douglas & Mr Hughes 

Having watched three Curtis Hughes matches this week I’m happy never seeing him wrestle again. He makes Ron & Don Harris look good. This match is not good and, for reasons I don’t understand, they persisted with the feud and gave them a cage match a few days after this. It went 25 minutes. I am NOT watching it. The finish is somehow worse than the last match. Hughes has a pin after hitting his finish but Don walks in, kicks him, and puts his brother on top for the win. HAHAHAHA. That was so bad. ½* 

 

Singapore Cane on a Pole Match 

Tommy Cairo vs. The Sandman 

The winner is the first to pull down the cane and use it. Keep that in mind.  

How did Sandman get over? Smoking cigarettes and having a hot manager. The Singapore Cane added to that, and he’d later add in a few beers and a very long entrance. Peaches was the “first lady of ECW” at the time but she is booed by the bloodthirsty Philly crowd. It’s a shame Sandman’s popularity resulted in his work becoming more…shambolic. The Singapore Cane falls off the perch, which fucks up the stipulation. Sandman gets a different cane anyway (despite the in-match one being easily attainable) and waffles Cairo with it repeatedly as the ref calls it a no decision. Woman canes Peaches for desert and the crowd eat it up. Match was dogshit and the finish sucked but everyone had a nice time. *¼ 

 

Cairo has his shoulder busted open horribly and Lori is lying in the corner of the ring crying. Crowd don’t give a fuck. Philadelphia, ladies and gentlemen. An absolute cesspool.  

 

Video Control gives us footage of the Heyman vs. Funk feud. They’ve woven Bobby Eaton, Sabu and Arn Anderson into the feud. Heyman paid off Public Enemy to take out Terry during the WCW guest tag match at When World’s Collide and NOW…they’re facing off against Terry and his brother. Ideally Arn Anderson would have been involved here but obviously they can’t keep borrowing WCW talent anytime they like.  

 

Public Enemy vs. The Funk Brothers 

This is Dory Funk Jr’s first appearance for ECW, but he’d work for them on and off until the end of the year. Dory is based with All Japan and would stay there for another couple of years until going into semi-retirement in 1996. The ECW YouTube channel decides I don’t need to see this, and it’s clipped from the tape. Oh. That was one of the main selling points!  

 

ECW TV Championship 

Mikey Whipwreck (c) vs. Rockin’ Rebel 

This is Mikey’s 8th title defence. He’s won on DQ every single time. “This is child abuse” yells Joey as Rebel beats up Mikey. If there’s one thing wrestling isn’t short of…it’s child abuse. There’s a strong chance at least one person on this show has committed a sex crime. Rebel, being an idiot who doesn’t watch ECW programming, beats Mikey up and refuses to pin him. Rebel has it well in hand but Jason interferes, Mikey beats him up and the ref throws the match out. Mikey vs. Jason is the money match and we all know it. * 

 

Post-Match: Rebel and Jason beat up Mikey some more. As ECW developed their post-match business became more important. Here Taz runs in for the save but then the Pitbulls kick his ass. Joey makes jokes about painkillers and his commentary is quite problematic in retrospect.  

 

Sabu vs. Cactus Jack 

Foley was still in WCW at the time, and this was part of the inter-promotional business between Paul and WCW. In fact he was one half of the tag team champions at the time with Kevin Sullivan. The ECW YouTube channel decides I don’t need to see this either and it’s also clipped off the tape. Wow. 

 

The 411: 

I was going to put over the YouTube channel for sticking these shows up, relatively unmolested, but I don’t understand the logic of clipping off the only two reasons for watching this show and leaving all the shit. Just don’t upload it? There’s nothing worth seeing here. Nothing at all.  

 

Next up is Heatwave ‘94 and that is two hours long so hopefully it’s intact. No, I don’t check these things ahead of time I’m not some fucking nerd who does that. I just watch and chat shit about it at my leisure. Also, any suggestion that I purchase the award-winning WWE network and feed money to Vince McMahon’s corporate sex farm will be met with great disdain.